why did france have a low population in the late 1400's from the settlement in america?

Question

I am doing an essay for History, and I need to know this: WHY DID FRANCE HAVE A LOW POPULATION IN THE LATE 1400'S DURING THE SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA FROM THE EURPEAN COLONIZATION.

Answer 1

this is what i have in the french wikipedia:

En France, entre 1340 et 1440, la population est passée de 17 à 10 millions d'habitants soit 42 % de moins. Le registre paroissial de Givry (Saône-et-Loire), un parmi les plus précis, montre que sur environ 1 500 habitants, 649 enterrements eurent lieu en 1348, dont 630 de juin à septembre, pour une paroisse qui en comptait environ 40 par an habituellement, soit un taux de mortalité de 40,6 %.


It says that from 1340 and 1440 the french population decresed from 17 milions to 10 (40% less!) milions due to several massive "Black dead" epidemia in europe, it was also the same in germany or england...
More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

Another reason is the 100 years war between france and england (******* britains! lol!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years%27_War

Sorry for my bad english i hope this could help you.

Best,

Julien

Answer 2

Your question is unclear : are you talking of the population in France ? Or the population in the French possessions in America ?

If it's the second case, I think it's mostly because the French authorities wanted a big control on the population they wanted to settle. Ex : they wanted only Catholics to settle on America, and no protestants - thus in Canada, the French Acadians and Quebecois are still mostly Catholic, while the English-speaking Canada is mostly protestant.

Moreover, it's possible than first installing in the cold Québec and Acadia, it was less easier for the French to install a permanent colony, and many people died from diseases and hard living conditions (while first English possessions were more in the South).

On the contrary, the English allowed more people to settle (no problem if you were not of the "official" religion, it was even better for the kingdom if you could go away from the motherland). Irony is that there were French huguenots (protestants) in a certain number... but in the English possessions, not the French ones.

Moreover; it seems the French authorities at the time didn't understand all the economic potential of America. They were mostly focused on Europe, doing wars in Europe and so on... At least, they knew the potential of Europe. New France was an incredibly big territory, but with in fact very few French population.

They understood too late the interest of America, and when they began sending more people (and women...) to French possessions, the English already outnumbered French by far.

I don't know about the importance of Native Americans. In the French possessions, French made good relations with most (particularly the Hurons), except the Iroquois who attacked them a lot, I guess this can explain in part the slow development of New France at the beginning. In the English territories, I don't know if English settlers encountered this kind of difficulties.

Answer 3

Well, aside from the fact that America wasn't being settled in the 1400s, I have no idea.

Answer 4

Columbus didn't even make it until 1492.

Not much chance that the French managed to resettle much of their population in the little time left in the 1400s.

Looks like your essay needs more research.